V 



* <^ 



r 









.-^^ 






.♦^^^. -. 









■ < 




► ^^ 



-^^0^ 



K <69^ V 






^^ .'jc;^^^^ 



•^^0^ 


























• .*'% • 








v» 










^^ .^I^^^-^^ 



" ' f 



^^. 










- -.5^/ /\ °"^'' ^^"\ '-^^Z /\ ': 









^^-^K 




,P9 




\ 







: ^^°x. : 




^•^-^^^ 






















.<^ 











'1.*' . . •/» 



<^♦. *•-<" .0 




'•^^0^ 












" %.^* •'. 



v-o* 



• .*' 



.N* c 










irX co^.i.;^^.>o ./\.ii^.X c°^.i;^^"°o .. 



o,. *•. 







V 











0* 






,^^ ,, 



•^ '^^^ A^ /^l^\"v.^'^" /i 



V<S' 






.*• ^^'\ ''^J ./"^^. »o^^^||«? V ^^^-^^ ^. 



<-. *'^^' ^^' 







^^..<-^ /J^\ %„./ '>^^^'- ^- -* •* 



^v^-^ 



^•\o'' %--iff-?-y" -o/>'^-\o^' X'-^^f^'y" 








^oK 







-^U-o^ 







oV 



V »t:^% c> 






^Q-n^ 










o on 






^"'^^.. V 











^^d^ 



^o ^ ° 



^o-n^^ V 




-^Ao^ 






;^ .N^ 



5°.*v : 







'oV 



Pvl 



V^ *!.^L'* cv ^,0' *'*°' V 
















To' .0 



/ 
^^^ 

^"^ 
•^^ 



0^ ,^ 



"K * 




♦ - . , • 



ift- ' • » 1 














* < o 













J^i'>.. c°\.i;^.7'i 



0^ 



V '^q, '*rtv> .0-' 







0^ »l^% °v: 



'bV 



^^-^^^ V 



«!^<^. 






v-^ 







r .,•». 













^ %/ o^Sim-^ "-s..^" : 



.A> .o. 



<.. *'..•* .^0 









.^" "^r, 



«*^ .o-«* "^^ 



^-- 



^^ y Ti: !<: 






HON. JAMES BROOKS'S SPEECH, 



BEFORE THE UNION DEMOCRATIC ASSOCIATION, 



932 BROADWAY 



Tuesday Evening, December 3 0, 18 62. 



"HOLD FAST TO THE CONSTITUTION." 

' CLING TO THE CONSTITUTION AS THE SHIPWRECKED MAEINEPv CLINGS TO THE LAST 
PLANK, WHEN NIGHT AND THE TEMPEST CLOSE AROUND HDL'— Daniel Websie :. 



N E W - Y R K : 

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED AT THE OFFICE OF THE N. Y. EVENING EXPRESS, 

Nos. 18 AND 15 PARK ROW, BY J. and E. BROOKS. 

PRICE $1.50 per HUNDRED, or $15.00 per THOUSAND. 



THE 



HOK JAMES BROOKS'S SPEECH 

Before the Union Democratic Association, 932 Broadway, Tuesday- 
Evening, December 30, 1862. 



"HOLD FAST TO THE CONSTITUTION." 

" CLING TO THE CONSTITUTION. AS THE SHIPWRECKED MARINER CLINGS TO THE 
LAST PLANK, WHEN NIGHT AND THE TEMPEST CLOSE AROUND Rm.''— Daniel Webster. 



The President of the Union Democratic Asso. 
ciation, the Hon. Luke F. Cozans, after some 
appropriate remarks upon the services rendered 
by the Association, said, that a speaker "would 
now address them, by whose ability and elo- 
quence, the large audience present would be 
well rewarded for their attendance on sc^ stormy 
an evening. He, therefore, introduced the Hon. 
James Brooks. Afier the repeated and pro- 
longed cheering that welcomed Mr. Brooks,had 
subsided, he said : — 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen — If any of 
you expect from me this evening, any exciting, or 
excited remarks,50uwill be disappointed. There 
are times so impressive, crises in public affxirs 
so solemn, that any flourishes of rhetoric, any 
pomi^ous display of periods, or sesquipedalian 
words, but detract from ihe<.'r;ivity &nd dignity 
of the theme. Hence, in ihe crisis ofacivii 
war like ours, where ihe blood of kith and kin 
is poured forth like water, and when this civil 
war is becoming complicated in fresher, and 
yet more fearful issues, tue simplest language 
becomes the sublimest expression. (Applause.) 
The ancient heathen orators in limes like these, 
when they were wont to address their public as- 
semblies, invoked their Uii Immorta/es, their 
Immortal Gods. How much more then, should 
Christians, -who assembio now, in the midst of 
Battle and Blood, iuvc;ke t/ic immortal God to 
guide our deliberations. (Applause.) 

THE TWO proclamations AND WAR ORDER OF 
SEPTEMBER, 1802. 

When I last had the honor of addressing this 
Association, la.te in Sept-'mber last, there w re 
threatening tbe people t^vo Proclamations and 
one War Order : One Proclamation threaten- 
ing tLe people of the North, that if they dis- 



cussed the other, the War Order would, through 
Courts Alartial or Provost Marshals, suspend 
Process, Bail, Jury Tria!, Habeas Corpus, and 
arrest aud incaicei ate all engaged in such dis- 
cussion. Toe Civil Courts were to be suspend- 
( d, and Military Courts were to be substituted in 
their places. The very fir^-t opportunity after 
the promulgation of these Enicts, I ventured in 
this HdU to deiiounee them, as in violation, not 
only of M'lgna Churta, the CoP",mon Luw of 
England and of tbe LTnited States, and of the 
rights of man, baf. of the Constitution of the 
United States, and of our State of New Yoik; 
and you, in jjur responses, here in this Hall and 
elsewhere, su abiy, so eloquently supported and 
ctjeered me, that the Edicts fell powerks^ 
before a brave and determined People. The Pre- 
sident, indeed, who fulminated these Edicts, un- 
der the inline' ce of our, and other election?, the 
ofTsprlDg of what we proclaimed, we «'o(/Whavc, 
viz.: frte discussion, re called,nullitied, abrogated 
his War Order, and that Pvoclaination Edict 
which threatened to subvert all Liberty in the 
North. The Provost MarsQals shrank back be- 
fore the majesty of an indignant People, and the 
Judges and the Courts were re-inaugurated, re- 
installed bj' that People. (Cheers.) 

THE PROCLAMATION OF JANUAKr, 1S63. 

But, gentlemen, there is left now another pro- 
clamation, not annuJed, — that,for the South and 
Southwest,— in f jrc*, or if possible, to be put in 
lorce January Isr, Vs&.i, — which I propose, this 
evening more fully to discuss. (Apijlause.) The 
President does not claim, nor do the President's 
friends claim, that for this Proclamation he has 
any warrant, in or under the Constitution of the 
United States, — whereby.thus, he subverts, or at- 
tempts to subvert, whole States, with the whole 
organization of their soeielj',- their statute, their 
civil, their municipal, as well as their constitu- 
tional laws ; nor does he claim, that under the 
laws of nations, he has any such prerogative or 



"Waste ti*"?* uoKS. 6oc. 



power, save what is iudefmitely declared to be 
the laws of war, the war power, or the miliiary 
necessity of war. I propose, this eveninsr, gen- 
tlemen, to discuss all ih<'se weighty matters, and 
you must put up witb, as a necessity of this dis^- 
cusBU'O, the recitation of some of our p -st his- 
tory, i.nd with the reading of such documents 
aspri.f milvcs necessary, however heavy such 
readiii;- may be in a popular assembly. (Cries 
of" Gi) on. It is what we want to hear.") 

WAR FOR THE CONSTITUTION. 

Gem iemen, as I said at the start, we are in the 
midpt of a bloody civil war, the maimitude of 
wnich is unlike aayttiinginlhe record of human 
history, except the civil wars of R.me, vuac 
drenched the huge Homan Empire in human 
gore. We, who were not of the Administration, 
were driven into this war, reluctantly driven in, 
by the force of uutiappy evints, and by tbe tben 
solemn pledge of tbe Admin is' ration, that itwus 
a war, only iomaintaiQ the Government and lie 
Constitution of iloe Uni.ed States, with the iu- 
tegrity of the Uuion. (Applau-e.) WearenOt 
now, and we revf r X'reltnded to be, supporters 
of the Admmisu aiiou. We drew at first, as we 
drawnow, tne Constitutional disiicctic^ between 
supporting the Givemment, and a temporary 
administration of Itiar, Government. (Applaust' ) 
We recognize no loyahy, nor fealty, nor allegi- 
w««^», ancfi^ due^jo any mere administration of 
the Cfovernmeur, to*' no mere man, in 
no one branch of i*^, — Executive, Le^iisla- 
tive, or Judicial, —but -we do recognise fealty, 
loyalty, love, devi.aion, witb the whole heart and 
Boul, as due to that great charter of human lib- 
erty known as the Constitution of the United 
States. (Loud and i^rolonged cheering ) That 
Constitution, in my earlier days, when not as 
well booked up as I am now, I supposed to be 
some impromptu inspiration of Divine Wisdom, 
far above all human intelligence, or human in- 
stinct, — the work of men inspired, as were the 
Holy Apostles, who handed down to us the 
Holy Scriptures, and I revered and worshipped 
that Constitution as the Bible guide 
on earth to men struggling for Law 
and Liberty. But upon fuller and 
maturer reading, I discovered, that our 
Fathers of the Constitution were not so much 
inspired men, as condensers or codifiers of 
centuries of human wisdom, the writers up, and 
abridgers of human law, the common law of 
England,— of the principles, rights, libejties, our 
British forefathers, after five or six centuries of 
6truggle,wrested from the Kings and Despots of 
England, and affixed to great charters of Hu- 
man Rights, the Magna Charta of 1215 won 
sword in hand by the Barons of England from 
King John, or the Petition of Right 1628, or the 
Habeas Corpus 1079, or the Bill of Rights 1689. 
The Constitution of the United States 
brought to a focus these great Lights of Liberty, 
Law, Human Progress and Civilization. Tbeeyes 
of our fathers were then but the lenses of tbe 
Past to see their Present, and so to provide for 
the great Future. (Applause). 

THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE AND THE PLEDGE OF THE 
WAR. 

Hence, when in December, now two years 
gone by, after the Presidential election, there 
assembled in South Carolina, a Convention of 
the States, enacting an ordinance of secession, 
separating that State from the United States and 
from the Constitution of the United States, 



which had not gratified South Carolina in that 
election . Hence, when in the subsequent Feb- 
ruary ihere assembled in Moutaomery, Alabama, 
a convention of a few other Staie«, enibverting 
and annubing the CoisMtutiou of the United 
Slates, and m>i only ilb;it, hut creating a new 
Constitution, and changing the old Flag, — 
both the reas()n and the s^u'lment of the coun- 
try felt indignant, and uprose to express that in- 
(iignatiou. Themagazineso wrli prepared for ex- 
plosion during twenty-five years of preparation 
tiy extreme men, both North and South, was 
flr"d at Fort Sumter, and the explosion took 
I'laee, involving some thirty millions of people in 
itsdes'iuciion. TheNonh uproseinmogs almost, 
— not to maintain or uphold Anrabam Lincoln, 
or the Cabinet Administration of Abrah:im Lin- 
coln, — but to uphold the Consiituiion, the 
three branches of the Government of the 
United States, its Judiciary as well as its 
Executive,and Legislative authority. (Applause ) 
" The Constitution s/;a// be maintained :" " The 
Flag sha/i be respected :" '-The Union must and 
shaU be preserved," were the universil rallying 
cries of the Northern People. (Applause.) Tht 
R-^b' 1 Enemy authoritatively, through one of it» 
Caiiint t officers (Mr. Walker), avowed its intent 
to marcu upon, and to seize, Wa-hingtou ;— and 
hence, when the Presid*^nt CLlled for his 75,000 
men, more than a million were earnest to volun- 
teer to protect the Capital, to uphold the Flag, 
to stand bythe Constitution. The war then,was 
solely ai-d avowedly for the maintenance of the 
Constitution, and the Flag as the symbol of that 
Constitution. 

THE PLEDGE OF THE INAUGURAL. 

The President himself,in his Inaugural,March 
4th, 1861, thus pledged himself against the 
Abfllitionists in his own partv, and against his 
Proclamation of Abolitionism : 

" 1 have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter- 
FBRE with the inslitution of slavery in the States 
where it exists. I believe /Arat'e no lawful right to do 
so, and J have no intention, to do so." 

THE PLEDGES OF THE HOUSE. 

The House of Representatives, by a nearly 
unanimous vote, in February, 1861, passed the 
following resolutions : 

Resolved, That neither the Federal Government nor 
the people or governments of the non-slaveholdingstates 
hare a purpose or a constitutional right to legislate upon 
or interfere with slavery ni any rf the /States of the 
Union. 

Resolved, That those persons in the North who do 
not Bubecrihe to the foregoing proposition are too in- 
significant in numbers and influence to exitetbe eerious 
attention or alarm of any portion ol the people of the 
Republic, and that the increase of tbeir numbers and 
influerce does not keep pace with the increase of the 
aggregate population of the Union. 

THE CRITTENIjEN PLEDGE. 

In July, 18G1, was mtroduced into the House, 
and passed almost unanimously, (only two dis- 
senting.) the well known Crittenden Pledge or 
Resolution, viz..- 

" That the present deplorable civil war has been 
forced upon the country by the disunionists of the 
Southern States, now in arms against the constitutional 
government, ond tn orms around the Capitol: th&tin 
this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeUng 
of mere passiou a- d resentment, -wili recollect only its 
duty to ibe whole country; that this war is not waged 
on their part in any spirit of oppression, or for any 
purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose oj over- 
throwing or interfering with the rights or established 
institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain 
the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve tht 



Union, with all the dignity, equolity and rights of the i 
Beveral States unimpaired ; and that, as soon as these 
objects a e accomplished, the war ought to cease." 

THE SENATE PLEDGE. | 

In the Senate, Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, had in- | 
troduced, and the Seaate had passed, a like reso- ; 
lution. Thus three branches of the Legislative 
Government— the Executive, the Senate, the 
House— solemnly pledged itself to the country 
to carry on a war, only for the Slpremaci' of 
TUB Constitution. The armies were created, 
and the soldiers were enlisted upon tht^t solemn 
pledge,— and, upon many a battle field, many a 
life has been lree)y offered up to carry out, de- 
fend, protect, and promulj^ate that pledge. This 
was the war.the N nh entered into, — the war of 
the Conservative men of the North,— the war of 
the great Democratic Partj'. We never com- 
mitted ourselves to any other war (cheers), and 
they who are for breaking these pledges, or for 
creating another war, — or, who have committed 
us to, or eulisted u* in this war, under what now 
seems false pretences, or false pledges, — thevare 
in honor bound to dismiss us from this war, and 
to carry it on, themselves. (Loud and prolonged 
cheering, many of the audience rising and wav- 
ing their hats.) 

; THE REVEKSE PICTURE— THE PROCLAMATION OF , 
JOO' SEPTEMBER 23d. 

These being the pledges of Mr. Lincoln, the 
President, and of the Congress assembled in 
Washington, njw look at the reverse picture,and ! 
say, who can, that the whole purpose, the whole 
pro(7>'a?»we of the war have not been changed? 
Say, — who can, that twenty millions of Northern 
white men are not now called upon to endure 
Conscription and Taxation, and to sacrifice 
themselves in Southern latitudes, mainly to free 
three or four million of negroes. ^Applause.) 
The President in his September 22d#Prbclama- ! 
lion says : 

"On the first day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand eieht hundred and sixtyihree, all 
persona held as slaves within any State, or any desig- 
nated part of a State, the people whereof sbali then he 
in rebellion against the United States, shall be, thence- 
f or icarded, ay d then, forever J'ree ; and Xhe I2xecictive 
Government of the United States, including the mili- 
tary and navai authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, or any of them, 
in ANT eti'ort, they may mate for their actual free- 
dom." 

THE president's EXTRAORDINARY USE OF 
WORDS. 

Let me first call attention here to the extraor- 
dinary words of the Proclamation. The Presi- 
dent speaks of himself, elected for but four 
years, two of them now nearly expired, as the 
Executive Government of the United 
States! Who created Abraham Lincoln the 
Government of the United States f Who created. 
Who elected hitn, a man made of no better flesh 
and blood than the rest of us, to be the Gov- 
ernment of thirty milUons of people in the 
United States 'i 

A Voice.— The people. "Cries of "No, no ;" 
"Put him oat," "Let him be.") 

Mr. Brooks.— The people! Never! (Excit- 
ing cheers ) Never, never did the people give 
him a majority of their suflfrages. (Continued 
cheers ) He is a minority President, appointed 
by the operations o/ the Constitution in spite of 
the people of the United States. (Cheers.) A 
large majority of the people voted against him, 
and he was created President in, and under that 
very Constitution he would overthrow by his 



proclamations. (Great, and continued cheers.) \ 
In this Proclamation, the President also 
speaks of " the Military and Naval authority. 
Authority is a legal power, or a right to com- 
mand, such as Prince over suf ject, as Parent 
over child. The Government has authority : or, 
the President acting in obedience to Law, and 
60 the Precedents or Decisions of a Court, are 
aut/ioritij or aut/ioritics ; but the authority ot 
the Army or Navy is more novel even than this 
declaration of Mr. Lincoln, that I am the Execu- 
tive Government of the United States, — for there 
is a precedent for that, in the French L'Etat 
c'est moi (I am the Stale.) The Army and Navy 
are the agencies of civil authority, — but, under 
our form of Government, they are no authori- 
ty of themselves. When the State is the Em- 
peior or the King, the Army or the Navy are 
only his means of executing his authority, — but, 
under our form of Government, they are no 
authority, only the military Agencies of the Civil 
Government of the United States. As names 
often are things, or more than things, I thus 
dwell in verbal criticisms upon these words. 
When a President sets himself up as the Execu- 
tive Government of the Uuited States, and calls 
the Army aad Navy his authority for overriding 
States, and the Laws of States, and the Consti- 
tution of the L'nited States, we cannot he too 
watchful of mere words. Naval and military 
men, then, be it understood, are but Agents, 
only, of civil auihorify, to execute Civil and 
Constitutional Law. (fhat's so; cheere.) The 
Army and the Navy are, certainly, not "author- 
ity," under any known or recognized "Execu- 
tive Government of the United States " (Cheers.) 
There is another part of the Proclamation, 
which chalks out, or seems to chalk out, a servile 
war, which contemplates, or setms to contem- 
plate,the exciting of the slaves to the destruction 
not only of their masters, but of women and 
children, and to add the horrors of a service, 
thus to the civil war. The words are — 

"The Executive Government * * will recognize 
and maintain the freedom of such persons (negro 
slaves) * * * in any effert they may make for 
their actua' freedom." 

I do not know that the President means to excite 
a servile insurrection. I will not impute to him 
the horrible intent of converting the Southern 
country intoa Haj ti,or StDomingo, with the"Au- 
thority" of his army and navy to help, but I say, 
that the language is susceptible of that meaning, 
and such meaning has been given to it through- 
out the civilized world. (Applause ) When the 
"Executive Government" thus addresses negroes 
or slaves, words ought to be used that negroes 
or slaves cannot pervert into authority to burn, 
slay, destroy, without regard to condition, age, 
or sex. (Applause.) 

THE HOUSE BREAKING ITS PLEDGES. 

But the President alone is not responsible for 
this violation of the Pledge and Principle, that 
enlisted the conservative men of the country in 
this war. The House of Kepresent 'lives thus, 
December, 1^<):2, reversed the Critteuden Resolu- 
tioa of July, 1802, the Hon. Sam. C. Fessenden, 
of Me., oflR-ring the following Resolution, which 
passed, ayes 78, noes .51 : 

Reaolved, That the Proclamation of the President, of 
the date of Sept. 22, 1862, is warranted by the Constitu- 
tion ; that tue po'Icy of emancipation as indicated 
therein is wefl adapted tw hasten tbe rentonition of 
peace, is well chosen as a war measure, aud is an exer- 
cise of uower with proper regard to the rights cf citi- 
zene and the perpetuity of a free government. 



IS&UE TAKEN ON PROCLAMATION POWER. . 

And no w,my friends,here,we take iesue on that 
RcBoluiioD, fuch as we took in September,here, 
in tbis HalJ, on the Proclamation, pending that 
reign of terror, wben moral courage wasmedtd 
to speak, not as now, when we can gpeak, and 
dare to f peak with fre'edom,of all the efforts of the 
administration of the government to subvert the 
law. When I said to you in the beginning of 
my remarks, that the Constitution of the United 
States was the emtodiment of the common law 
of England and of the wisdom of our British 
ancestors for 500 years, I omitted to say that 
there was nothirg in that Constitution which 
lorbade Executive Proclamations. There are 
certain things so settlt d in human life, that it is 
not necessary to stipulate against them, such as 
the right to eat, to breathe, to live. When our 
British forefathers, iu their second Revolution, 
stipulated against almost everyform of executive 
despotic p wer, they did not deem it necessary 
expressly to stipulate against Proclamations, or 
to define the limitd of uttering a Proclamation, — 
because the common law of Euglaud had long 
6ettled,tba!, Kiogs could not make law by procla- 
mation, or oi dain law, or override law. When 
our Constitution was formed, such a practice 
hadnot beensetup in England for 200 years. 
No monatca of England, for that long period of 
time, had attempted to exercise, by proclama- 
tion such po^'ers and prerogatives as tlie Presi- 
dent of the United Scaies seis u\> in his Procla- 
mation of Septembf r 22, 1862. (Applause ) 
Queen Elizabeth as long ago as 1580 began to 
■^■j make Law by Proclamation, then, against the 
(.81:' Anabaptists of Eogland, and against Irishmen 
no Btraying away from home, and against sedi'.ious 
and schismatic books tending to prejudice the 
then rising Church of England. James tbe l&t 
prohibited by Proclamation country gentlemen 
from coming to London, and regulated, or at- 
tempted to regulate, the habiliments of their 
wonaea and children. (Laug'^iter.) Charles the 
1st, unforiu jately lor himself, in prohibiting by 
Proclamation, emigration to New England, pro- 
hibited Cromwell and Hampden from emigrating 
there. Queen Elizabeth, however, respected her 
People enough, to listen to, and to yield to some 
of the remonstrances of that People against this 
power of Proclamation. Charles the Ittwent 
to the Block, because of the unholy exercise ot 
this, and similar Prerogatives and Powers. (Ap- 
plause ) The Tudors, and the Stuarts claimed 
not only the power to proclaim ai-d to ordain 
Law by Proclamation, but the power to dispense 
with Law, and to suspend Law. What cost 
these dynasties their existence is that which calls 
itself "<Ae Executive Government of the United 
State8,and is now attempting upon u8,Americans. 
(Applause.) Abraham Lincoln suspends Law,— 
the Habeas Corpus, — dispenses not only with Law, 
but even wiih the Courts of Law, and, by Pro- 
clamation, ordains Law. (Cheering.) Our Fathers 
did no"; stipulne against these Executive or 
Royal Prerogatives, in the Constitution,— because 
for 200 years in England, the exercise of such 
Prerogatives had scarcely been thought of. But 
what no King of Englandfor two centuries dared 
to do,— what broke down the Tudors and the 
Stuarts, Abraham Lincoln is doing, and his up- 
holders are claiming that he has a right to do. 
(Applause). 

A PBONUJ^CIAMIENTO, NOT A PROCLAMATION. 

Now, no man doubts the right of the President 
to utter a Proclamation; at times, it is his duty 



even. — but a Proclamation is one thiDg,and a Pro- 
NOsciAMiENTO is another. The one is English,! 
on English precedent; the other is Spanish, and 
comes to us from Spain, or,fromthe Revolutions 
of Spanish America. The Kings or Queens of 
England, utter Proclamations now, — and therei 
are numerous precedents for them, from the Ad*; 
minstration of Washington, on to this era and age, 
—but the Kings of England, now, and tbe pre- 
vious Presidents of the United States, utter Pro-: 
clamations, not to make Law, or to ORDAnfr« 
Law, but to proclaim what the Law is, and to 
forewarn ill-disposed people against the viola- 
tion of existing Common, Constitutional, on 
Statute Laws. The Queen of England, Queen- 
torn, has forewarned her British subjects not to 
violate British (neutrality) Law,— but our 
four-years old President suspends Law, dispen- 
ses with Law, ordains Law,and overthrows both 
Constitutional and Statute Law. He pror.ounces 
(in the Spanish meaning of the word), not pro- 
claims Law. He scorns Common Law, Statute 
Law, Constitutional Law, Latin Magna Charta, 
at.d Habeas Corpus, and English, as well as Ame- 
rican written Constitutions, and introduces here, 
not from England, the Proclamation, but from 
Spanish America, the Pronunciamiento, that is, 
Revolution. A Proclamation upholds Law ; 
the Pronunciamiento overthrows Law. The 
President has fulminated a Spanish Pronuncia- 
miento. 

NO SUCH military POLICY NECESSARY. 

But, we are told this Pronunciamiento against 
whole States, or upon whole States, is, as a mat- 
ter ot mere military policy, or necessity, a wise 
exercise of the War Power ; and it is insinuated 
that when the negro is thus "pronounced" free on 
paper, then Sambo, and Scipio abd Caesar will 
embrace their Ri hel masters, and bring them in- 
to th^anks of our army, and surrenderthem as 
prisoners of war to the utterer of this Paper Pro- 
clamation. (Laughter and applauFC.) We shall 
see. "W e shall see. But I deny that there is any 
wif-dom in this P^per as a war measure. I deny 
that it is a military policy. Its first fffect has 
been to disunite the Noiii], and to raise np a 
large majority in that North, certainly in the 
central States of the North, iu opposition to 
this species of administration. (Applause,) — ' 
And the next effect has been, vi hile ttjue disunit- 
ing the North, to ur.ne tte whule South as one 
man against a govemnj. ut carrying on a war on 
such principles. (A viiice — "Tbat'sso.") We, 
who were unite d, have become a divided People, 
and they, who were divided, have become a unit- 
ed people; — and if this be military policy, I 
must say, I don't see it. Do you? (Laughter.) 
It is a matter of record, too, that 
since the utterance of this Papei, wLile Provi- 
dence before blessed our arms, wireu ti.htiiigfor 
the Constitution and the Laws ; now, ProvidcLce 
in a good degree has ceased to smile uj^on us. 
Delaware, Maryland, Western Virginia, K<u- 
tucky and Missouri came to us under tbe In .ne- 
ural of the President and the Crittenden Ref o- 
lutions; New Orleans was taken; Norfolk sur- 
rendered ; nearly the whole coast of North Car- 
olina became ours ; a Union party more or less 
existed everywhere in the South ;— while row, 
vast armies are in the field against us, fighting 
not alone for Independence, but for life, home, 
family, fireside, wife, children, everything dear 
to man. The military policy of the President 
has made poptilar, South, what was there but an 
odious conscription, and wtat the people were 



preparing to resist. A war, becoming unpopu- 
lar, has there been made popular ; wmle a war 
here, at tDe start popular, is becoming unpopu- 
lar, because of tbe tUlt-e pretences untlcr which 
men were engaged or culisied in it. (Applause.j 
Hence, I deny ihut ihere is any military necessi- 
ty for tbis Paper, or, that there is any military 
policy iu it. (Cheers.) It is costing us already 
seas of blood, and will cost us, if thus persisted 
in, the entailment ot a debt upon generation 
after generation, so that labor, for centuries, will 
be subjected to capital. (Cheers ) 

NEGRO PROCLAMATIONS IN TDE WAR OF THE 
REVOLUTION. 

And now, as a matter of history, gentlemen, 
there is no one thing upon which the American 
people.or the United States Government,are more 
committed than against this use of negro- freeiug 
Proclamations, or the use, in any way, of negroes 
in war, civil or foreign. The British (ienerals on 
our own Continent, pending our own Revolu- 
tion of 1776, uttered Proclamations like this of 
Abraham Lincoln. Sir Henry Clinton and sir 
"William Howe ^jroc^imet^ in New York, New 
Jersey and Pennsjivania the freedom of our ne- 
groes ; Lord Dunmore did the like in Virginia, 
and Lord Cornwallis, further South. Our States- 
men and our Generals made good poiuts of ap- 
peal to the civilization of the world against tbis 
British employment of Indians and negroes in 
civil war, and they spoke of the Indian savage 
and negro barbarism in the same breath. The 
use of such means and men, by Englishmen to 
subdue Englishmen, was pronoimced to be 
against the law of nations, the law of nature, 
and the law of God. (Applause ) That great 
man, Edmund Burke, whom Heaven had so 
gifted with intellect, that he seemed able to con- 
centre fue great lights ot the Past, and to spread 
and to reflect them all over the Future, — that 
great man foresaw what England was driving 
America into, and often held up the lights of that 
luminous intellect to forewarn his countrymen to 
beware. What he, what Lord Chatham, and 
others, said in the British Parliament, ought now 
to be read and re-read by every North American. 
In an address to the King of England, exhorting 
that Kmg not to drive the war to extreme meas- 
ures. Slid Burke : 

" To excite, by a Proclamation iasued by your Mili- 
tary Governors, an universal insurrection of negro 
slaves iQ any of the Colonies, is a measure full of com- 
plicated horrors, absolutely illegal, suitable neither to 
the practice of war nor to the lime of peace." 

In an address to the then British Colonies, Mr. 
Burke said : 

" We likewise saw with shame the African slaves, 
who had been sold to you in public faith, and under the 
sanction of acts of Parliament, to be your servants 
and guards, employed to cut the throats of their mas- 
ters." 

The effect of these remonstrances from Burke, 
from Chatham, and other liberal Englishmen, 
upon Parliament, against these proclamations 
for the use, or sudden liberation of negro slaves 
by the British generals, did more than anything 
to destroy the popularity of the war in England 
and to tenapt the British government and people 
to end so wicked a war, by the recognition of 
their colonies as independent States. (Ap- 
plause.) Great Britain herself, as a govern- 
ment, confessed the Proclamation respecting 
the negroes to be so wrong that in the treaty 
of 1783, 7th article, is this solemn stipulation : 

That His Britanidc Majesty should, " with all con- 



venient speed, and without causing any destruction, or 
carrying away of negroes, or other property of the 
A.mtiicun iiiLiuduaiiitf, witodraw all his armies, garri- 
sons ana fleets fiom the United States, and from every 
part, and place, ana hiirbor within the same." 

When the treaty eame to be executed, long 
controversies arose upon what delinition should 
be given to this " carrying away of negroes, or 
other property.'^ Whoevtv will look into the 
American archives will find long diplomatic pa- 
pers, and then long diplomatic controversies, — 
and he will find, loo, that not only such Southern 
men as Jt ffeison and Edmund Randolph, of Vir- 
ginia, were committed against the abduction, 
use, or employmcLt of negroes in war, freed by 
proclamation or otherwise, but such New York- 
ers as John Jay and Egbert Benson. In the end 
the British government acquiesced in the justice 
of these remonstrances, and paid for the de- 
ported negroes, thus freed or abducted. (Ap- 
plause.) 

NEGRO PROCLAMATIONS IN THE WAR OF 1812. 

A like passage of history was repeated after 
the war of 1812. Admiral Cochrane, upon the 
waters of the Chesapeake, issued a Proclama- 
tion, which, while it avoided the use of the word 
slave, iu order to seem thus not to violate the 
understanding, or law of nations, that forbade 
the use of slaves, or the stirring them up to in- 
surrection, nevertheless invited such persons to 
enter his Majesty's service, or to emigrate to 
British possessions in North America. Admiral 
Cochrane, in short, was following in the foot- 
steps of Clinton, Howe, Dunmore, and Com- 
wallis of the Revolution. When the Treaty of 
Ghent was made, (1815,) in the 1st article was 
inserted a stipulation resecabling that in the 7th 
article of the Treaty of 1783, viz : 

" That all places captured by either party should be 
restored without delay, without carrying away any 
private property captured in such places, or any slaves, 
or other private property." 

OPINION' OF JOHN QUUiCT ADAMS. 

John Quincy Adams, to whose name and 
memory, the Republican party profess to look 
up with so much respe<»t, i t so happens, was 
Minister at the Court of St. James, charged with 
the negotiation of this Treaty on tue part of the 
United States. In a letter to the Secretary of 
State, August 22, 1815, he reports his conversa- 
tion with Lord Castlereagh upon the subject, 
in part, as follows: 

" Had the British plenipotentiaries asked of us an 
explanation of our proposal to transpose tLe words [of 
the treaty] we should certainly bave given it ; -we evi- 
dently hadan object in making the proDosal ; and we 
thought the words themselves fully disclosed it. Our 
object was the restoration of all property which, by the 
usages of war among civil zed nations, ougnt not to 
have been taken. All private proper on shore was of 
that description ; it was entitled by the laws of war to 
exemption from capture,— stores irere private proper- 
ty." Further on he continues : " It was true, procla- 
mations inviilLg slaves to desert from their masters 
had been issued by British ofBcers ; we believe them 
deviationsfrom the usages of war ; we believe that the 
B itisti government iistlt wonld, when the hostile pas- 
sions arising from the state of war should subside, 
considf r them in the same light. ***** Lord 
Liverpool manifested no dissatisfaction at these re- 
marks, nor did he attempt to justify the proclamation 
to which I partially alluded." 

In a letter of instructions (Julv 5th, 1830) 
to Mr. Middleton, our Minister to St. Petersburg, 
where this article of Treaty of Ghent had been 
referred, upon difficulties arising as to construc- 
tion similar to those in the Treaty of 1783, Mr. 
Adams enters into a lUBtained argument to 



8 



prove that the emancipation of an enemy's 
slaves is not authorized by the laws of war. — 
The following extract is sufficient to clearly ex- 
hibit his opinion : 

"It has 1)6611 repeatedly alleged on the part of the 
British gover merit that it could not be supposed they 
■would have ag'eed to aa article which -would oblige 
tiiem to deliver up to their masters elavea who, during 
the war, had takt-n refuge under their protection. The 
reply to this observation is, that if that had been an ob- 
jection to their agreeing to the article, it should have 
been made before the signing ofthe aiticle, and the en- 
gagement not to carry away tlaves at all. They had in 
fact numbers of slaves by lUese difl'erent modes of cap- 
ture, — one of such as had been seduced to run a .vay 
from their masters by proclamations from Biiiish 
ofScers, a second of voluntary fugitives whom they 
received ; aLd a tM-d of such as had been taken in 
predatory ex'^ursions. You will find in iJilts's Regis- 
ter, vol. V!., p. 242, the proclamation of Admiral Coch- 
rane, instigating the desertion of slaves from their mas- 
ters. * * * * It is not openly addressed 
to slaves, nor does it avow its real object. From the 
use of th-^ phrafcolou'y which it adopts, the juference 
isconcusive that the real otjject was such as the 
admiral did not choose t .> avow, aud the only supposa- 
ble motive for the disguise is the consciousness that it 
was not conformable to the established usages of war 
among civilized LatioiiS- Tt:e 'WJOLg was in the pro- 
clamation. Admiral Cochrane had no lawful authi ri- 
ty to give freeaom to tbe slaves belonging to the cili- 
zets ofthe United States. Tbe recogoltion of them by 
Great Britain in tbe treaty as property is acurrpleie 
disclaimer of the right to destroy that property by 
matiijg them fiec. An engigement contiacitd -will 
them to that effect was, in relaiion to the ownt-rs ofthe 
property wrongful ; fnd, if, in relation to the slaves 
ihemselvef", it wag an tngagemcLt which tbe Brilist' 
governmeiitaPSbmedupon themselves aLd sanciiontd 
itcouldnot divfst the owners cf tbe savesoftbe.r 
properly, nor release tbe British government; from the 
obligation to the United States, and to the owners, lo 
evacuate the place without carrying them away."' 

Mr. Adams wrote to Mr. Rush, at London, as 
lollows : 

"The only equity of theBritish side is that they sign- 
ed the article without being awareofits full impoit, 
and that the stipulation was uicompatible with their 
previous promises to the negroes. This is tlie real 
knot of, tbe question bet weeu us, an 1 its solution it", 
that they had no right to make any such promises to 
he negroes. Tte principle is, tha'^tje emancipaiioi. 
of an enemy's slaves is not among the acts <;f ie^jilim te 
war— as I elates to the owneri^; it is a deiitructiou it 
private property, nowhere warranted by the usag s oi 
war. This principle niutt, I think,.be peculiarly 1;;- 
■ 1.1 • miliar to the Emperor of Kuseia, and may be prested 
,i''r)i npon his attention in the case of reference with 
effect." 

On the ISth ot October, Mr. Adams again 
wrote to Mr. Middleton, uud expressed his views 
in the strongest language. He said : 

"In the statement of tbe British ground of argument 
upon tbe claim in the subiuitsioii, they have Oioad y 
aseerted the right of eooanci^^ating slaves— pi ivate pro- 
perty— as a legit'mate right of var This is uttei'y 
jincomprehensibleontbepartofa nation wnoee sub- 
eels hold slaves by mii'ioi:8, and who. in this very 
treaty, recognize them as private properly. Na s'kLi 
right is acbnowledned as a law of war by writers who 
admit any limitation. The right (f putting to deaih 
all prisoners in cold blood and without spi cial cause 
migh'. as well be pretended to be a law of war, or tbe 
lighttouse poifoned weapons, or to aseassmate. I 
think the Empen r will vol recognize the rightof "-marj- 
cipation a legitima'e wa fare, and am persuaded you 
will present the argument aguins; it." 

Now, gentlemen, no languatje can be stronger 
than tbi!«, which Mr. Adam.s here uses against 
what Mr. Lincoln has done, or is to do. "The 
Emancipatiou of an Eueuiy's slaves (he says) i.** 
not iiinoDgihe acts of legitimate war," almost the 
languat^e of Edmund Burke. " No sucti right is 
aciiuowledged as a law of war by writers, who 
admitof any limitation." Mr. Adams expresses 



his horror of such war, by classing it '■'■ with put- 
ting to death all prisoners in cold biood," or '• the 
use of poisoned weapons," or ^'■assassination." 
The Emperor of Kussia decided on the words of 
the Treaty, that the slaves must be paid for, and 
they were paid for, $1,200,000 under this, the 
Treaty ot Ghent, and the Treaty of 1783. 

It is now said, ihatac a Jate period oi life, Mr. 
Adams retreated from ihe&e positions, and ex- 
cused himself for so doing,ibat lie wrote under in- 
structions from the tneti administration, and did ^ 
not express his own opinions. It is true, that | 
al'.er Mr. Adams had been defeated for the 
Presidency in 1828,- as,he deemed, by the South, 
exasperated, it may be by that defeat, he did 
agree, that "the War Power" could abolish 
slavery, but his "War Power" was not laid 
down to be in a Proclamation from the Presi- 
dent ot the Unittd States, but in Congress. 
CoMGUESS (be said) (speech of 1842) has power 
(thus) to carry on the war, and not the President 
alone. One of the laws of war, he sets down to 
1 e : 

"When a country is invaded and two hostHe armies 
are set in mariial array, tL-e Commanders in both ar- 
mies have power to emancipate Slaves iVi the invaded 
territory.'''' 

But our President in the White House, with 
no sword buckled on bis belt.even, lUOO miles or 
more from Texas, &c., which our armies have 
never invaded, fulminates from that White 
House, in a mere Proclamation, a law of war,hb- 
eraiing the slaves in a Territory he has never 
even seen. (App-ause.) 

It matters not, however, what Mr. Adams said, 
in tbe hef^.t of debate in 1842,— lor then he was 
but Mr. Adams,— whereas as Minister to Eng- 
Und, and as Secretary of State, representing and 
acting for the Government of tbe United 
States, he committed this Government, and the 
People, in 181.5 and in 1820, to principles 
which no honest, consistent successor iu that 
Government can now retract. Mr. Adams in 
1815 and 1820 spoke for the United Slates: in 
1843, he spoke for Mr. Adams alone. '1 here is, 
our record, a record made up from 1776, cu to 
1818, in two Treaties of Peace, in diplomatic 
correspoLdtnce, and in the receipt of moneys 
thereon, and this record cannot be got over, or 
put under,— for it stares us in the face, on every 
bide we turn. (Applause.) The emancipation 
and the use of negro slaves, as President, Lin- 
coln is using atid emancipating them, is, then, in 
violation of every princii^e and every precedent 
of our intercourse in such matters, with foreign 
States. (Great cheers.) 

Gentlemen, these historical recollections, I 
am well aw ire, in a popular assembly like this, 
are somewbat dull,— but I feel iu addressingyou 
that through this Association I am addressing no 
inconsideratile portion of our Northern country- 
men, and I trus', directly or iLdrectly, some of 
llie conservitise people of the South. (Ap- 
Vlause.) Hence it U LOt decl iiuation that is 
useful now, but ititiruction, the right reading of 
the riiiht records We must show both the 
North and the South, that the war waged was a 
war for the Constitution aud the Laws, uota 
war to break Coustituti(!-ns and Laws, — and a 
war lobe Wiigpdaccordiu;;tothe laws of nations, 
as expounded by such etniLent men as John Jay 
and John Quincy Adam.s, when tfey were ad- 
dressing other nations. 

THE WAR POWER. 

But we are told, gentlemen,— no matter what 
Constitution, no matter what the laws ol nations, 



this is a war power, President Lincoln is using 
to support the very life of the nation. He has 
the rigDi to exerc any, and whatsoever power he 
may deem best tiiteU to subdue the common en- 
emy. Or, in other word*, tbe President of the 
United States has but to involve the people in a 
war, with anybody, ostensibly to maintuia the 
Conetitution, and he can then pervert that war, 
to subvert mat Constitution, and to extinguish 
the life of the nation. (Applause.) What pro- 
position more absurd ? What better confutation 
than the mere simple statement of such an ab- 
surd proposition. (Applause.) In an ab- 
stract struggle, then, for the Rejiublic, 
we must die in Despotism ! To live, we 
must commit suicide ! To restore the Union, 
we must make the Union not worth a restora- 
tion ! Now this is not the sort of Government 
under which we bargained to live, or to die 
even. (Cries of " no, no.") We have never 
agreed to subvert the Constitution in order to 
restore the Union. We have never agreed to 
surrender Liberty, Property, Free Speech, Free 
discussion, or Freedom in the concrete or ab- 
stract to^ny Executive Governmtnt,orExecutive 
Power. (Cries of Never, never.) And if ever 
the time comes, when under any " War Power," 
it may be necessary to subvert the Constitution, 
and thus to give up our Rights and Liberties, it is 
a matter of indiflcrence to me, whether a Union 
thus achieved, be maintained or not; and I say 
here, and hpsitate not to say, that the quicker 
we be rid of sucn a Union, under such a Go- 
vernment, the tetter lor all concerned. 
(Loud, and prolonged, and reiterated 
applause, the audience rising, and giv- 
ing three cneers for Mr. Brooks ) This \V;ir 
Power is a new name for a very old thing. 
It is the new name of Despotism, and of Mili- 
tary Despotism, tbe very worst sort of despotism 
on earth. When the Roman Republic was 
changed into the Roman Empire— when the Ro- 
mans lost their Consuls, the Tribunes, thtir 
Senate, all but in the name, and thus lost ail 
their rights and liberties, their Impekatou, the 
Latin name for their Abraham Liucoiu, their 
Commander-in-Chief, was scaicely ctianged by 
the War Power into the modem word, Emper- 
or. Augustus, or Tiberius Cic? ar, but became 
Kaiser, or Czar, that is Csesar. Hence, let us 
pat down our foot at the start, and declare, wc 
recognize no Presidential War Power, no Impe- 
rator to be turned into any Eynperor, no Caisar t* 
be madeinto any Kaiser, ov Czar. He who attempts 
to govern the People, under any other Powi r 
than the Powers of the Constitution; he who 
leaps over the Laws of Civil Liberty, and the 
Civil Law, into that boundless field of Despot- 
ism, claimed as a War Power, establishes princi- 
ples and precedents,from Emperors and Caesars, 
and merits the execrations of every free 
man. (Applause.) Hence, I say, when a 
President ordains Law by Proclamation, under 
the pretence that he has such right, under any 
unknown, illimitable War Power, his Proclama- 
tion is not to be regarded as Law ; it is not Law 
—(cheers)— and the President of the United 
States has no more right to declare it Law, than 
you or I, or any other man. No General in the 
field is bound to respect such Proclamation. 
No soldier in the field owes it obedience, or 
fidelity. (Tremendous and long continued 
cheering.) 

Gentlemen, your cheers remind mcjfhat this is 
strong language, — but it is iuch as the crisis de- 



mands. Somebody must speak, when the great 
bulwarks of Law are being broken down, and 
everything is thus b>'iug put in peril, and I may 
as Well speak as other men. Some Humble sen- 
tinel mubt stand on tbe outposts ot the Consti- 
tution, and the Law, and standing there, must 
speak, and cry our against Proclamation Law, 
againstExecutivesdispei)hingwith,orsu(ipcnding 
Law. Two montljs ago, I know it would not 
have been safe thus ti» upnold Law, or to declare 
against the violation of Law, — nut it is safe now. 
TDen the casernes of Fort l^afayeite, or Fort 
Warren would have been my doom. (Cries, not 
now.never, never ; we 've put a stop to all that.) 
But when a President is unfaithful to his oath to 
uphold the Constitution and the Law, and sub- 
verts thut Constitution and the Law,— it is my 
duty, it is your duty, before God and man, to 
denounce all his arbitrary uses of Power. (Great 
applause, and three cheers lor the Speaker.) 

SUBJUGATION IMPOSSIBLE. 

In the beginning of this war, — when it was a 
war tor the Constitution.and for the whole Uni- 
ted States, not only were the people of the 
North a unit, or nearly so, — but we had a great 
and powerful party in some of the ■Southern 
Strtes of the Union;— and for that Constitution, 
and under that Flag, which was the symbol of 
the Constitution, there was a fair prospect, not 
of subjugating, not of exterminating, not of 
crushing out the people of the South,— but by 
prudence and wisdom, and a lair adhesion to 
the principles of theConstituiion.andof the Laws 
of Civilization as well as of Nations, ot 
bringing back tbe great body of the Soutnern 
people to the embrace of the Union, and to the 
reverence of that ancient and honorable Flag. 
It was their Flag, as well as our Flag,— and the 
j associations connected with it, were as dear to 
tfjero as to us. (Applause.) But I hesitate not 
uow to say,— what hitherto I have re- 
frained from saying, though often felt, 
t hat it is vain, utterly vain, to attempt to sub- 
jugate, extinguish, or exterminate six or 
seven millioDS of Anglo-Saxon people. 
(Applause.) Their race is our race. The blood 
that ruEs in our veins is their blood. The same 
pulsations that beat in our hearts, beat in theirs. 
Tne same current of life that flows in us, flows in 
tliem. Now, who of us, standing here on this 
Northern soil, believes. Southron or Saxon, Celt 
or Teuton, or Frank, can invade, or conquer, or 
subjufiate us. All Britain, all France, the whole 
South, combined, could never shake us from our 
propriety, and make us tremble, and yield, un- 
der invasion. (Applause.) Subjugation- si<6- 
^M^o- isnota word of Anglo-Saxon derivation, 
or origin. (Cheers.) Anglo-Saxons never were, 
never are, never will be. Drought under tbe yoke 
— subjugated, conquered, crushed out, extermin- 
ated. (Cheers.) Fdmund Burke well compre- 
hended all this, and in that masterly speech ot 
his on " Conciliation with America," cm d four 
cases where, for years and years, the British gov- 
ernment had attempted to subjugate a neighbor- 
ing people— the people of Ireland,— ofWales,and 
ot the Counties Palatine of Durham and Chester. 
Ireland was five hundred years, he shows, in the 
proccbs of subjugation, and arms never did con- 
quer her. "It W..S not English arms (says 
Burke), but the English Constitution that con- 
quere<l Irelnnd." The British, at last,threw over 
her thf^ protecting mantle i>f British liberty, and 
Irelatid then began to be subjugated. When En- 
gland piled fifteen acts of penal legislation upon 



10 



Wales and Welshmen, "no Englishman travel- 
ing in that, country could go six yards from the 
high roadwitbout being murdered." (Laujibter.) 
" When, after two btiudred years of struggle, the 
day fetar of the Euiilish CoDSiitulion," odds 
Burke, "bad arisen In their hearts, all was har- 
mony, within, and without — 

Wmul alba ntxutis 

8»ellartfuli!it, 

Df fluit Biixis agitatus humor, &c. &c. 

And the like is said of the Counties Palaiine, 
Durham and Chester. Hence how vain this at- 
tempt to subjugate, e'u^h out, or exterminate 
millions of our own people, of our own flesh and 
blood, — protpcfed as tbey are by au almost, 
boundless territory, stretching froni tbeFotomae 
to tlie Rio Grande,— a territory almost without 
high roads, in large plantations, without visible 
population,— in winter, no inconsiderable por- 
tion unaer water ; in summer, the beat so 
pressive that the mai of the North can hardly 
endure exposuie to the rays of the sun. Such a 
territory, if there were no defenders upon it, 
would be almost unconquerable, geographically, 
or climatically, if I may coin the word. The 
subjugation, therefo-e, of such a people, or such 
a,territory, in such a climate, maj as well be 
abandoned first as last. If we wish then to 
bring them back into the Union, we must bring 
back to them the Constitution and the Protection 
of the laws. We must do what Burke saio.was 
done for Ireland and Wales, throw over them the 
protecting folds of the Constitution, in the spirit 
in which that Constittition was formed. We 
must re-lift up from the ground where it was 
trodden under foot, the Constitution, and on'y 
the Constitution. (Applause.) We must do 
Equity and Justice, and then we can exactEquify 
and Justice. We must hold out Equality for the 
States, and then we can enforce Equality. We 
must respect our own rights, and the rights of 
States, and then we can compel respect for these 
rights upon others. We must rear up here in 
the North, a Conservative, Coustitutioi-al Party, 
and when that Party is reared up, which accepts 
the Constitution not as this man or that man 
expounds it, — but as the Supreme Court has ex- 
pounded it (cheers), then, and not tiil then shall 
we be a re-unitt d States. Then, and not ti 1 then, 
shall we begin to suDjugate the South. Force nor 
Violence can evtr win back a People to love. 
Conquest would but impose the necessity for 
re-conquest, until here, as in Europe, we should 
ever be revolving in the ruinous circle of War 
and Despotism. Wehuldinihe Soitth, now, only 
wLat is under the ran^je of our guns. Our con- 
quest is only of the soil on which we are tread- 
ing. To hold all this, to possess, to occupy a 
territory so vast, not a'one are one nii'lion of 
men indispensable to hold, — but a million more, 
to conquer, to sutjugate, as well as to occupy, 
oi;,to re-fill the ever thinning rankis of those who 
do conquer and subjugate. How much better, 
then, how much wiser is the law of sell-Govern- 
ment, or of that home Government, that State 
Government, which relieves a nation fioiao 
obligations so vust, and impresses the duty ot 
Government, upon every individual. Rely upon 
it, then, the only army for subjugation is the 
Constitution of the United States, and the 
principles of fret self-government, interwoven in 
every part of it. !'ut what we are doing now, — 
organizing and arming negroes, forming negro 
Battalions, Regiments, and Brigades,— is but out- 
raging puNic sentiment. All Europe is crying out 



against it. The whole civilized world shrinks 
from, and abhors any prospect of the repetition 
of the bloody scenes of H.iyti and St. Domir go. 
That European sjmpatby and civilization which 
h.as Mtherto looked up to us as the model Re- 
public, now turns with horror from white men 
co-operating with African slaves to shed frater- 
Ea' b'.ood. We have no hope, then, from the 
«orkl ; we can have no hope in ourselves, until 
we retreat from tLis disgraceful exhibition of 
twenty millions of white men calling on four 
millions of negroes to ili;ht eight millions, at the 
most, of -white fellow m<n. Let us, then, has'en 
b ck to the principles of Washington, and of tne 
Fathers of the Republic, as soon as postible, 
and put the Republic back upjon the old track of 
the Constitution. These were principles of com- 
promise, acd concession, the North to the South, 
and the South to the North, and under them, 
from 1770, on to ISGO, we carried on a succestlul 
and united government. (Applause.) I do not 
expect an immediate, nor an earlj', rc-establi^h- 
ment of confidecce between the North and the 
South ; the demagogues have been too long suc- 
cessfully at work in parting us,— but I do ex- 
pect, that when we can successfully re-estdblibh 
the principles and spirit of the Constitution in 
the North, we shall be answered by a correspond- i 
ing party. South. Or, in other woid.«, when 
■we can fcilectualJy subvert Abolitionism, North, \ 
a corresponding j.arty in the South will success- ■, 
fully subvert Secessionism there. (Applause.) 

IHE PURPOSES OF THIS GOVERNMEJ»T. j 

But, I am asked, — what is our profframme / — 
what we intend to do y Do we intend to lay 
down our arms, we are tauntingly asked, and 
to submit to Rebellion, and let Rebellion ride 
rough-shod over U3 ? Do we intend to let the 
capital of our cotintry be taken,— our armies 
surrender,— and our cities, perhaps, be sacked ? 
No ; we have no such intent, no such purpose. 
(rlpplausf.) We now have no such idea, and 
we nevf r had. We think, and we feel, first,- that 
if we act upon the purposes, and upon the prin- 
ciples, which created tliis Government, the war 
will soon, of itself, cease. When the Constitu- 
tion ia 17S7 was created, it was not altogether 
thework of Patrioti'-m, cr the love of Liberty, 
th.:t inspired our Fathers. The treaty ot 1783, 
with Gre it Britain, had secured the Liberty of 
the Peopl°, and the Independence of the States. 
There was ne>t a right then, we have now. that 
every body had not then. The great principles 
of British and of American personal 
Liberty were as well secured under the 
old Confederation ef States, as under 
the Confederation of the United States, But 
thf re were other things wanting we had not 
under the Constitution,— free trade, free inter- 
course, a common currency, — and, above all, 
protection and security from European inter- 
vention, or invasion. Thirteen independent 
States had thirteen different Custom Houses, 
and thirteen different laws, and regulations of 
commerce, and of trade. There was one rate ot 
duties in Fewport, Rhode Island, .and another in 
New York, and yet another in Baltimore, or 
Norfolk. The Fathers of the Republic then felt 
the great business necessity of creating order 
out of this chaos,— iind of adding to a Free 
People, a system of Free Trade, and of Free 
intercourse. It was intep.est, then, self-inteb- 
EST, as much as patriotism, that laid the founda- 
tions of our Government. Tbere were debts to 
be discharged, otiigations to be met, a navy to 



11 

be created for tho protecLi.m of coiiiin.rrce, that ) iro back, aud go back as fast as pos«U>le to the 
could only beachieved by a goveruajf'Dtof thel reesta^ilishuieut of our Custom Houses our 
United State,-. Undtr tie uuidauce of these im- ! uuifortn bistem of duiic*. Whic they are doing 
pul.sesofsLlfiuiLit.-r, OD ttie 11th of Sf-pieUibur, ; ui the iuterior of Vi. fciini.i, -wheiti r they are in 
1780, Cominissiouers from several States asseiu- rehellion or i.ot iu 1. v;i-. or G. ofia biit litttle 
bled in Annapolis (Md.) '-to consider upon th j | eooccrn us, if ne b-.l.i nu to (Jaivcbtorj lo Fort 
best raeaus ot remeiiving the defects oi i Pul iski. to New Orlcju-. to Not folk, aod c jllect 
the Federal Government." Their very platform itie Revenue, and aitend lo the. wd-hts and 
■Wets ' to take m^to cousideratiou the tkade ai^d | measures. (Alau-h) If ia Tennessee, ever, 

"""" "*■'''" '''' '^ c^— -•■'> . -• ' - j ^^^^,J (.hooue to rebel, let tijcm rebel till tbey 

tired of it, provicl.-d at New 



COMMEHCE of the United Stares, and to cousid 

huw far an uniform t\stem, iu th-^iir commercial | are 



iutercourse aud ie!.'iii.t!ions, migut be necessarj' 
to their common inueue.-jt aad permanent har- 
mony." The vuL'ar in-pirati m of Tr idesturted 
the Convention held iu Fui) idelpuia, aii.r-rwards, 
in 1787. Such men as Washiuijton, Hamilton, 
Madison, Frauklm, Roger Sherman, Ru'ltdge, 
aud Pinckuey, did nut hesitate to assemble, and 
to act upon this great inspiration of self luteresi, 
and ot Commerce aud Trade. Free trade, a 
free intercourse, free rivers, tliey well reasoned, 
■were indispeusablj' necessary among a f :ee i)eo- 
ple. The main purpose for which this G )Vern- 
ment was created, our Constitutional history 
shows, was to have Imt one system ot cu-loms, 
and of dudes, from Georgia to Maiue. Or, iu 
other words, more tersely expressed, this is 
an exterio)\ not an interioi-. Government. Tne 
Federal Government was crea'.ed, not for mo- 
rals, not for religion, not for slavery or anti- 
slavery, — but topiomotethe "geneial welfare,"' 
or, in other, more vulgar parljnce, to collect 
duties, to raise revenue thnrcby, to coin money, 
to h ive uniform weights aad measures, to have 
on^ pi'eut othee, and to regii ate commerce 
with foreign nations. I repeat, our great Fa- 



Orleans they will pay the duties, and let us 
alone in Kentucky, and on the nvigition of the 
Rivcrs. The beauty of our lorni of Govern- 
ment is, thax we have little or nothing to do 
with what is going on in Tennessee, or Alabama, 
or Mi»fii-i,<pi. If the People there think ir, their 
luteieot to be in rebellion, let them r^bel,as long 
as faey will contiue their rebellion in their own 
limits. I do not propose to surrender New 
Orlean9,tjo,never (Applause.) ThatPo=t and that 
Port arc iu Ji-p^us iDie to the greaiWet-r, — where 
millions and millions moeofpeopleareb-reafter 
to live, aud who cannot even run the ji;k, that 
England or Fraace,or some other Po wer may take 
It irom ihe Sou'.h, as we took it Trom her, under 
Farragut. What Gibraltar is to the gr^at Me- 
diterranean, New Orleans is to the Gieat West, 
-the Key, the gateway of the comm. rce of 
thirty or forty thousand miles of mterior River 
Navigauou. (Ajiplause.) I do not propose to 
surrender Key West. The possession of it is 
indispensable to our navigaiion of the Gulf of 
Mexico. It is our self-interest to hold it, and 
hold it, we must. I do not propose! to ^urrerlde^ 
, ^ .. , ^ Norfolk or FortressMonroe. Thev arethe kevsof 

thers crtMiwl a Government ot, and founded it j lUe Chesapeake, and thegitts tothe Ci.-ital in 
upouself.o(erest,and only upouthe.se principles Washington. The duty of ttiis Goverumentis 
of sell interest can it be mumtained. When to collect duties iu Mobile, in Charleston as 
we inertere witu morals, or religion, 
or attempt to govern by Theology, or 
Philosopti3, our Government fai s. When' 



11 as iu North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, 
aad Louisiana,— and I weuld lemoif anything 
hich stands in the way of the execution "ot this 
Exterior dut\. 



UNION A NECESSITV. 

The God of Nature, I may Ray here. 



we auempt to enforce opinions, or to use Gov- 
ernment to enforce opinions, the Government 
tails,— for it never can do, wtiatit never was cre- 
ated to do Heuce, when an attempt is made lo 
fee uegr-oes, or emancipate negroes iu the 
South, the Government fiiis,ju-*tasifit attempt- 
ed to e'na&cipaie them iu B.azd or Cuba, or lo 
emancipate the Sepoys of the East Indies. Hence, 
when we prosecute war to free fiar millions of 

of S mthern ue^ro' s, — though there are twenty | Miss ssippi, on the Ohio 
'llious ot us, North concerned it,— wemustfall, l nurueious tributaries, that 



under our fom of Government ; for the Govern- 
ment was created exactly fur reverse pur- 
po-'cs, — the purposes 'of self interest, — 
South as well as North — (ipp'ause) — 
and it is not the interest of theSouth to liye among 
free netiroes. (Continued applause.) If, theu, 
we wiih to end iLe war, we mu-*t resort to the 
principles ot interest that laid the fouodatioas 
of the Government, and we must make it the 
iuter.estof the South to live with ua— asour 
fa' hers did, when they created the Government. 
We must,'hen, go back aud remember, this is an 
ex'crior, not an interior Government, aud th it 
slaves and slavery iu Georgia or in C irolina do 
not concern us, as it is our concern to regulate I 
commerce, to collect duties, to have 
uniform weights and measure*, and 
common patent laws— not to tree ne- 
gro'fs. We want one system of trade, 
one uniform commerce upon the sea coast.and 
the free navigition ot such great Rivers as the 
Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, the Red River, the 



to the 

Southern People, — (On, that they may heed it to 
avert eternal wars!)— the God of Nature has 
written upon our very gt^off'-a^hv —"One Coun- 
try, ouc Constitution, one Destiny " [Aop'ause.] 
lis wri'ten on the long lines ot iheMissouiiand 
an i all their 
mpy into the 



Arkansas, etc. Thj true programme, men, is to divide us, as lue Liii 



Gulf of Mexico, Th-i Fa-.berofhis (Jountry is 
noimore eloquent iu his Farewell Aiidiessup- 
oa tins necessity of Union aud ludivi-ibility, 
than is the Fa'her of Waters, for f jur ilii>usand 
miles,— as be gathers up his reasons iu the using 
rivulets of the icy Rjcky Mountaius, aud rolls 
th>'m on, iuro volumes of irrcffisirDle logic to- 
ward '.he Gulf of Mexico. ( A,.>piause.) Toese 
great waters must, -it is the law of inexorable 
necessity, — Deloug to one people, and i)e iu one 
country. The holding on to wnat we h ive got, 
on the Mississippi, on the Gulf, on tue Chesa- 
peake, ou the Capes of Virginia, is as indis- 
pensable lo our safety as it is for the 
safety of the So i h lo have them too. 
We are bound together thus, we are linked to- 
gether, for weal or woe, — and no wise man will 
fight to put asunder wuat, God has thus joined 
together. (Applause.) If we part by Tre ity, 
we [lart hut soon to meet again iu war. Eternal 
War, or E-ernal Union, seems to be our Destiny. 
(Annliusel Tell me not, that the Ohio can 
■;Jc: Fr.ince and 



12 



Germany, or, as tin; Danube parts Nationalities, 
— tell me not all ttiis, unless you tell me, in the 
bame breatb, tbn numbers of the huge btand- 
ing armies, that garrison the Rhine and 
the Dauuhe, ai«d secure Peace only by bristling 
in arms, eiernally. (Applause) England could 
not live without Scotland and Wales, and France 
perished in provinces, and Germany has been 
drenched with human gore, — because,<Aere there 
was one people, speaking one lauguage, cut up, 
divided into Kingdoms,Dukedoms,Landgrave8, 
etc. It is essential, indispensably essential, for 
the security of our American Liberty, that we 
be one People. (Applause.) If but a river part 
us, or a chain of mountains, huge standing ar- 
mies must stand as sentinels on everysuch river, 
or on every such mountain pass, — andtheremust 
be cordons of custom houses, and passports, and 
restrictions.all utterly destructive ofhuman liber- 
ty. Standiug armies are the Death of Freedom. 
Where the sword reigns, the Genius of Liberty 
runs off in terror and affright,— and the People 
soon succumb toDespotism. (Applause.) Three 
hundred thousand, men on your side, and three 
hundred thousand on our side, to act as Police- 
men, will be indispensably necessary to keep 
apart a People speaking one tongue, and these 
inflamed by discordant free and slave institu- 
tions. Tour negroes would run off, and we 
should keep them, and yon, in revenge would 
burn, pillage and destroy. — Eternal war, orhujie 
standing armies, I repeat then, would 
be our destiny, — inS where War is, we see 
now, both North and South, there is no 
Liberty. In the name of God, then, if we will 
throw down our arms, throw down yours, and 
come back to us, or, it God has abandoned men 
to passion, and blood, in the name ol Liberty, 
that hereditary Liberty, bequeathed to ns all, we 
invoke you, to unite with us, anl rescue our 
country from a destiny that shocks the patriot 
even in imagination to contemplate. (Great 
applause.) 

UNION OUR SALVATION. 

But, gentleman, Union is not only es- 
sential to liberty, but essential to our salva- 
tion. Republics exist on earth only as cxcpp- 
tional governments. Monarchies and de^poiisnis 
are the '-omnion Law, if not the common desti- 
ny of nations. All Europe smiles, or seems to 
smile, upon our divisions, our battles, and the 
torrents of blood we sbed in order to destroy 
the only great Republic on earth. Monarchy 
and Dnspotis 11 both grin their ghastly smile, — 
while Liberty, the earth over, shrieKS over the 
unnatural, the suicidal war. 

Gent^oj iH, "Divide and Conquer" is the prin- 
ciple of monarchies against republics every- 
where. Divide and conquer is the principle 
which now inspires the British Government, it 
not the Emperor ot France. Divide the North 
and Soutli, and then if possible conquer both 
when both are exhausted. Lenity and universali- 
ty of government are therefore a necessity for us 
both North and South, and the quicker aud deep- 
er and wider, this principle is comprehended 



universally, the quicker we shall lay down our 
arms and stop this horrible effusion of human 
blood. (Applause.) 

PRACTICAL RKSOLUTIONS. 

Gentlemen, I love to speak for practical pur- 
poses, and hence I have prepared two or three 
resolutions to present for your consideration, for 
your discussion hereafter, not for acticn at this , 
time and this place, but for submission to this j 
Democratic Association. I see nothing else that 
is left to us except the principles that are em- | 
I bodied in these resolutions. Revolution is the 
last thing to be thought of, under a form of gov- 
ernment liLe ours, where grievances can be re- 
dressed at the ballot-box. We have to endure 
this Congress, we have to endure this President; 
it is wiser to endure them than to overthrow 
them by revolution. It is possible, barely 
possible, that at last they may be awakened, and 
may hear and heed the voice of the people. 
Hence I have selected a state as a medium 
through which my resolutions may be presented 
to the people both of the North and the South. 
A State of the Revolution ; one of the Old Thir- 
teen, ofhigh and holy history, which has never 
been alien, either to the North or to the South, 
and which has ever been faithful to theConstitu- 
tionoi our common country, and thatis,theSiate, 
the gloriousState of New .Jersey. (Loud cheers.) 
I propose, therefore, the followitg resolutions, 
to be submitted to the Democratic Association 
for discussion, for aciion, and if you approve of 
them, for prtsentation to the Government of New 
Jersey. Andh t me remark here that tbeGovern- 
ment of New Jersey is a homogenous govern- 
ment; ihf" three branches are all of one faiih and 
one opinion,and hence I name her in preference 
to the Government of our own New York. 

THE APPEAL TO NEW JERSEY. 
Resolved, That the State of New Jersey, through 
her State Govi>rnment, be respecifully requested to in- 
terpose in Older to arrest the existirg civil war : 

1, Byiuvliinathe non.slaveholdirg States and the 
lojalBlaveholdiDg8tat.j6— Dtlaware, Mary'aud, Ken- 
tuckv a ' d Missouri— to meet in convention in Louis- 
ville. Ky , on the — day of Fehniary npxt. 

2. ByVeqviPS'iPg the permission of the President of 
the UiJited Sialesto send Citnni1sHor,t rs to Viiginia, 
Norlhftiid Houth Carolina, Geoigia, Alabama, Florida, 
Mississippi, Lou'siara, Arkansas, Texas, and Tennes- 
eee, to invite them also to meet in lite national con- 
VPTition. And 

S. Be iff urther Resolved, That thp President "be re- 
Qiii'sttd bv the State Government oiNew Jersey to de- 
clare an armietice with or for such Sij-te or States as 
m-dy accept this call for a national convention. 

Resolved, That a commiitee be created on the part 
of this Association to present these regolutions to tbe 
ncvernorand Legislature of New Jersey, and to urge 
v.oon thats'a'e, tha*, incoDBideration other revolu- 
tionary history and patriotic associations, she is en- 
titled tbun 'o lead in a na'ional convention for the res- 
toration of the Union of these Slates. 

The resolutions were greeted with a torrent ol 
cheers,and it was asked that they be passed upon 
immediately. The President therefore put the 
question, and they were carried unanimously. 



» 



So 






^""-^^^ 



' J- 











. "v*^-v v*^\/ \/^^-v^ V**i 



%. 

^'>^ 



■*^.** 4m\ \/ /* 


















-^X'':>°^>-.:''\v^-.....:v''':/:^^^^^^^ 
















>">^ -. 



/ .&^ ""^^ 















-V 




v»o^ 



<?■. ♦••o' 




^♦^ 






"^. 

















^o,. •^•'* .0' 



^°-'*, 






^-./ 






.*" . 






■: .^'-V. 






<*. 







.:^^>. \ 







• .*^^ 






f" .. V^»^' -^ 







^^^.^''ViM^'/V./ •■ 



>y .•'■•. 









bv^^ 







.^*^°- 



• ^'«-' 







^^^ 



0* o' 






















*•. •^'n 














-^^0^ 

» .<^''^ 






C" • 







.*v. 



°.. *^ - ^ •* ^0^ ^^^ %;^<>- .-^-^ -q,^ ^.^r; ••^ ^0 






.♦^-v. 



^.^^'-^^^ >..^^" .^ 



V >> 



p^.^'. 



.!b^^vr. - 









.V^^ 
^-^. 









.^*>^^. 







' *^^* 









*' ^^ 










'oK 







* ^K 



0^ 










r.*' ao'^ V ••-< 






* ^^' -^^ 




J"^ .1^^% 






V^* '^WS^" "^vo-i^ • 



^.**^X--^K-'>*^^ 














•,rf5JsVK*'* ^ .^^ ♦V/^Z^ 






